Johnny Marr

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Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher on 31 October, 1963 in Ardwick, Manchester) is a British guitarist, keyboardist, harmonica player and singer, and is best known as the man behind the music of The Smiths. Like many Mancunians - including his former bandmates in The Smiths - he was raised as a Catholic and is of Irish descent; his parents emigrated from County Kildare to Manchester in the 1950s.

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Early Career

Marr first started out as a footballer, being approached by Nottingham Forest F.C. and also having had trials with Manchester City F.C..

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Musical Career

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With The Smiths

Template:Main In 1982, Marr began writing songs with Steven Morrissey, after forming The Smiths with him. To complete the lineup, they recruited Mike Joyce on drums and Dale Hibbert on bass guitar. After two gigs, Hibbert was replaced by Marr's friend Andy Rourke. By then, Morrissey had dropped his first name and Maher had changed his name to Marr to avoid confusion with the Buzzcocks drummer.

Having achieved commercial and critical success with landmark albums such as The Queen is Dead, The Smiths were soon stars in their homeland, but never enjoyed the same amount of success elsewhere. This success would not be met while the band was still together; Marr eventually left the band due to his frustrations with Morrissey, stemming from Morrissey's infatuation with 1960's pop groups such as Cilla Black.

From The Smiths' year of inception to the breakup of the band 5 years later in 1987, Marr and Morrissey co-wrote enough material for 4 albums, as well as numerous B-sides and other unreleased materials that eventually appeared on one compilation or another. Today, the Morrissey-Marr songwriting duo is held in the highest esteem among critics and fans alike, due to Morrissey's groundbreaking lyrics and Marr's highly melodic and harmonious music.

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With The The

After the demise of The Smiths in 1987, Marr played guitar for The The and also worked with New Order singer/guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner to form Electronic. He also became a sought-after session player and producer, writing, touring and recording with, among others, Bryan Ferry, The Pretenders, Kirsty MacColl, Talking Heads, Black Grape, Billy Bragg, Pet Shop Boys, Beck and Oasis.

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With The Healers

The Healers first appeared in 2000 when Marr started looking for musicians. He recruited the son of Beatle Ringo Starr, Zak Starkey, and Kula Shaker bassist Alonza Bevan. The band took two years to complete, because Marr wanted members to be chosen "by chemistry." The debut of the new band was released in 2003, where Marr sang and wrote the lyrics. The second LP was originally going to be released in April 2005 and a short tour was expected soon after that, but as Starkey currently is involved with Oasis, it is unknown when their next LP will come.

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A Smiths 'Reunion'

It was announced in December 2005 that Marr would be performing with former Smiths bandmate Andy Rourke at the Manchester v Cancer benefit concert at Manchester's MEN Arena on Saturday 28th January 2006, which was also to feature New Order, Doves and Badly Drawn Boy — with whom Rourke plays bass guitar.

It was rumoured that Mike Joyce and/or Morrissey would play alongside their former bandmates for the first time since The Smiths split up in 1987, fullfilling the much hoped-for Smiths reunion. However Marr dispelled rumors of the reunion by posting on his official website that THE SMITHS WILL NOT BE RE-FORMING AT [THE] CONCERT. However, Andy Rourke did join Marr onstage to play The Smiths' classic "How Soon Is Now?"

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Musicianship

Marr, in The Smiths, was known for a delicate, angelically sweet guitar style that could evoke musicality from just a few well-chosen notes. While he would probably blanch at the comparison, Marr's playing is in many regards similar to that of idiosyncratic progressive rock guitarists such as Steve Hackett, Peter Banks, and Robert Fripp. Indeed, his understanding of harmony and counterpoint was light-years beyond that of most rock guitarists of the time, and replicating many of his 12-string guitar lines requires considerably greater skill than is needed to play a typical 1980s "hair metal" guitar solo.

Contrasted with the common rock guitar flashiness and speed of the time, best exemplified by Eddie Van Halen and his legion of imitators, Marr's playing was out of place in the usual pop mainstream. In fact, all of The Smiths, in their own way, represented departures from the typical music of the time, which had increasingly become less about music and more about business.

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Albums discography

Only those bands of which Marr was a regular member are included; his session work discography is extensive.

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With The Smiths

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With The The

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With Electronic

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With Johnny Marr and The Healers

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External links

Template:The Smithsde:Johnny Marr es:Johnny Marr nl:Johnny Marr ja:ジョニー・マー sv:Johnny Marr

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